USB drives can be Handy. They can backup your files, allow you to physically move files, and even run an OS. However, when buying them online (especially places like eBay) it is possible to run into a hacked USB drive. For example: A 256MB thumb drive is hacked to say it has 8Gig. When plugged into a computer it shows 8Gig of free space, but when your computer writes beyond 256MB things begin to be corrupted. Be sure to check the reviews and use a tool like H2testw before relying on a thumb drive. If all else fails you request a refund from Ebay or Paypal (if either of those were part of the transaction).
Your point made me think about a USB drive I purchased on ebay couple of months ago. The dive that I bought claims to store 512 GB. Since I have never stored more than 10 GB on this thumb drive I don't know whether it can store 512 GB. I will check and if it does not work I will have to initiate the refund process.
I am not a computer nerd or a programmer. I think USB is said to be hacked for it could easily be configured by a computer or virus within the computer itself. Internet -able or Internet connected computer is susceptible to virus irritating and frustrating intrusion in which in the long run the USB becomes less serviceable or totally crippled.
Thank you for the advice. This is one reason I rather purchase new USBs for safety reason, I have learned my lesson with an Sd card claimed to have been new but ended up being used. The card was said to be currupted when I inserted to my PC. I was lucky enough to get it exchanged even though it did throw of my PCd performance a bit.
These hacked USB drives are USB drives that have less memory than what is appeared on the bundling. Some USB drives require some space for security and give you not as much as what is appeared on the bundle, these are not hacked USB drives. Hacked USB drives are the point at which the producer gives you less capacity however when you stack up your PC it says you have what the sum on the case lets you know. A case of this is the point at which an organization offers you a 32GB glimmer drive however you just have 8GB on the drive yet when you go home and check how much space is on the drive it says 8GB, this is the place you should be watchful and do look into on the drive you are purchasing.
This is good to know for we all like bargains and used is cheaper. There are good sales weekly at Office Depot/Office Max, sometimes CVS and Walgreens have USB on sale and they are all brand new. I never heard of 512 GB though. The biggest USB I ever saw on sale is 1 Terabyte. Thanks so much for this information about used USB.
Nice post Nathan. I'll definitely check for that the next time I buy a pen drive. It is always advisable to scan the USB drives prior to usage with the help of licensed Antivirus programs. It sometimes happens that the USB drive shows 0 bytes allocated and 0 bytes free even though it has a capacity of 8 or 16GB. A small fix I would like to recommend here.Go to My Computer->Right click->Disk Management.In the USB partition select a max size(> the capacity of the USB drive) and create a new partition and that should work fine. Do not quick format the USB drive often. It results in data losses and the storage capacity of your drive reduces. Do a regular format instead.
There are also some USB drives that can insert viruses and damage your computer so watch out for those. I think I found one of those phony USB drives as well. I found a USB drive that claimed it had 16 GB so when I inserted it into my laptop, it said it only had a capacity of 2 GB. I thought it had just been damaged but most likely, it might have been a phony one that someone threw out.
